The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris.

  • Thaddeus Mason Harris
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the Bible ; or, A description of all the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, trees, plants, flowers, gums, and precious stones, mentioned in the sacred scriptures: Collected from the best authorities, and alphabetically arranged / by Thaddeus Mason Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to be imagined that it could have been procured in quantities suf- ficient to form any considerable part of that vast veil which was expanded over the court of the royal gardens. ‘Taylor, Hebr. Lex. says, “I am inclined to think it calico :. but besides the uncertainty whether this kind of fabric was then known, it seems insufficient to answer the purpose of an awning from the thinness of its texture. It was more probably a strong and thick kind of cloth; but of what material 1t was made it is now impossible to determine. ' AN''IMONY*. 5) ruvurn; Gr. Quoc ; Lat. fucus. In 2 Kings, ix. 30, the Septuagint render it eguuuczro. In Jer. iv. 30, the Chaldee renders it by 535 conan, and the Sep- tuagint, c;Bw. Grandius explains the cohal, or al-cohal, of the mineral called in the East, “ surma?. Antimony is a ponderous brittle semi-metal, composed of long shining streaks, intermingled with a dark lead coloured sub- stance, The Scripture speaks of its use as a. kind of paint, with which the women blackened their eyes. ‘Thus we read of Jezebel, 2 Kings, ix. 30, that, understanding that Jehu was to enter Sama- ria, she decked herself for his reception, and (as in the original Hebrew) put her eyes in paint. This was in conformity to a custom which prevailed in the earliest ages; originally, perhaps, as a prescription for curing disorders of the eyes®, but afterwards as an ornament. As large black eyes were thought the finest, the women, to increase their lustre, and to make them appear larger, tinged the corner of their eyelids with the impalpable powder of antimony or of black lead. This was supposed also to give the eyes a brillancy and humidity, which rendered them either sparkling or languishing, as suited the various passions. The method of performing this among the women in the eastern countries at the present day, as described by Russell, in his Natural History of Aleppo, p. 102, is “ by a cylindrical piece of 4 The reason of its modern denomination is referred to Bazil Valentine, a German monk; who, as the tradition relates, having thrown some of it to the hogs, observed, that after it had purged them, they immediately fattened ; and therefore he imagined that his fellow monks would be better for a like dose. The experiment, however, succeeded so ill, that they all died of it; and the me- dicine was thenceforward called antimoine; monk’s bane. 5 Grandius, * Disert. de 975, sive stibio, ejusque usus apud antiquos in re cos- metica, per epistolam, in cujus exordio de aqua Nilotica, deinde de stibie men- tione in Sacris litteris, et de fucorum materia disquiritur. [In Ephemerid. Naturz Curios. decad ii. an. vi. p. 83.] | * Hispanis eodem vox etiam nunc in vulgari usu est, uti et alcoholar fucare, et alcholado, fucatus. Scilicet et has voces cum innumeris aliis a Saracenis Ara- . bibusque retinuerunt. Haseus. See also a Dissertation, * De lapide puca, ad Tsai. liv. 11, in Biblioth. Brem. Class viii. Fasc. v. p. 191. 3 ^W 9 The use is thus commended by Galen: Opbarues Os rovugeis To diare Qeuyia: Xia yewpevos Cnew xorrvew. Oculos vere ipsos corroborabis si sicco collyrio quod ex Phrygio lapide componatur.